Starbucks Charleston mug: Discovery Series
The Starbucks Charleston Discovery Series mug shows CHARLESTON over a green circle, a row of colourful houses that may be Rainbow Row, a carriage, sweetgrass baskets, a dolphin, a promenade that may be the Battery, and a teacup with ghosts.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The paint job meant to rescue Charleston's East Bay Street
In 1920 the Joseph Manigault House faced demolition, and the real estate developer Susan Pringle Frost and her cousin Nell Pringle founded a society to save it [1]. It grew into the Preservation Society of Charleston, the oldest community-based historic preservation organization in the United States [2]. Frost then did what she knew best: she bought old houses, renovated them and put them back on the market [1]. One block of East Bay Street was in bad shape: its old merchants' buildings had gone neglected after the docks silted and trade moved elsewhere [3]. In 1931 the decorator Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge bought a house at 99-101 East Bay and painted it in bright colors [3]. According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, her nonhistorical, attention-grabbing scheme was meant to encourage the rehabilitation of the buildings around it [3]. As the buildings were restored through the 1950s, the block became known as Rainbow Row [3]. The orange, teal and blue row houses across the top of the Charleston mug (4) may be it.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1CHARLESTON lettering
CHARLESTON in pale blue-green capitals runs across a dark green circle in the middle of the front.
- 2Paddleboarder
A woman with orange hair, sunglasses and a blue patterned swimsuit stands on a dark blue paddleboard with a long orange paddle. She is a generic figure, not a named person.
- 3Wading bird, looks like a great blue heron
A blue wading bird with a long neck, long orange beak and patterned wing stands at the end of the paddleboard. It looks like a great blue heron, though the colours are stylised. The mug doesn't name it.
- 4Row of colourful houses, may be Rainbow Row
A row of tall, narrow, flat-fronted houses in teal, orange, dark teal, blue and green runs across the top of the circle; one has a curved gable and one has arched doorways. It may be Rainbow Row, the block of painted merchants' buildings on East Bay Street, but the drawing shows no street name and the colours and number of houses are not a match we can check. The mug doesn't name it.[3]
- 5Sailboats and a sailor
Three sails stand at the lower left: one with blue stripes, one pale teal and one orange with a white star, over teal and blue hulls, with a person seated in a boat and two gulls in the sky. The mug doesn't name a harbour or boat.
- 6Horse-drawn tour carriage
A blue-and-teal open carriage with a canopy, spoked wheels, a driver and several passengers is pulled along the lower right. It looks like one of the horse-drawn tour carriages that work in downtown Charleston, which the city regulates. The mug doesn't name a company.[8]
- 7Horse
A dark blue horse in harness walks under the lettering, pulling the carriage (6).
- 8Dolphin, looks like a bottlenose dolphin Side view
A large blue and pale-teal dolphin with a dotted white line along its body leaps across this face, with orange fins and tail. Its tail and body also show as the blue shape at the left edge of the front photo. It looks like a bottlenose dolphin, but the drawing is stylised.
- 9Pineapple Side view
A yellow pineapple with a green crown stands at the upper left of this face, beside the guitar neck (14) at the edge. The mug doesn't say what it stands for.
- 10Sweetgrass baskets Side view
Two woven baskets sit beside the pineapple: a tall one with a handle and a checked blue-and-teal pattern, and a flat round one drawn as rings coiled out from the centre. Coiled baskets like these are the sweetgrass baskets made and sold around Charleston and Mount Pleasant. The mug doesn't name them.[6][7]
- 11Waterfront promenade, may be the Battery Side view
A couple holds hands on a blue-and-teal striped walkway lined with dark posts and a lamp, with palm trees, a blue house and orange-and-yellow buildings behind and a green hedge with white flowers to the right. With the dolphin and sailboats beyond, it may be the Battery, the sea wall promenade at the southern tip of the peninsula, but no building on it is drawn closely enough to confirm that. The mug doesn't name it.[4]
- 12Columned building with a pediment Back view
A teal two-storey building with seven bays of arched windows, blue pilasters, small dormers and an orange pediment with a round window stands on a raised base with a double staircase, behind two palm trees. We could not match it to one building: the Old Exchange, for example, has a cupola and Palladian windows that the drawing does not show. The mug doesn't name it.
- 13Saxophone Back view
A blue saxophone with orange and teal confetti sits to the left of the building.
- 14Guitar Back view
An orange acoustic guitar with a teal neck stands upright to the right of the building; its neck also shows at the left edge of the side photo.
- 15Teacup, may refer to Charleston-grown tea Back view
A blue teacup with yellow flowers, orange tea and a tea bag hanging over the rim sits on a teal saucer with a spoon, steam rising into the ghost shapes (20). It may refer to the tea grown on Wadmalaw Island near Charleston, but the drawing shows only a cup of tea. The mug doesn't name a brand or place.[5]
- 16Spreading tree, looks like a live oak Back view
A wide tree with a pale teal trunk, long low branches and a green canopy stands at the right, against dark blue shrubs; the same tree shows at the left edge of the side photo. Its low, sprawling limbs look like a southern live oak's. The mug doesn't name a particular tree.
- 17Square of cornbread with honey, possibly
A teal dipper drips orange honey onto an orange square block with pale flecks, at the bottom left of the front. It looks like cornbread with honey, though the drawing could be another baked square.
- 18Man sitting on a dock
A man in blue sits on the end of a striped brown dock below the sailboats.
- 19Orange flowering tree
A small tree with round orange blossoms stands above the carriage, near the handle.
- 20Ghost shapes in the steam Back view
Three pale teal ghost figures with dark eyes float in the wisps rising from the teacup (15). The mug doesn't say what they refer to.
- 21STARBUCKS wordmark Back view
STARBUCKS is printed vertically in dark grey capitals beside the handle.
- 22Small white lidded cup in the oak branches Back view
A small white lidded cup with a green circle sits among the branches of the live oak at the right of the back. It looks like a Starbucks hot cup, though it could be a birdhouse. The mug doesn't name it.
The three photos go round the printed band from one side of the handle to the other (back face beside the handle, side face, front face), but the joins between them are seen at a steep angle and the area under the handle is not shown. The inside is light teal in the front photo.
Collector notes
- The Charleston front is built around a dark green circle with the lettering across it; the pineapple, the baskets and most of the dolphin are on a different face, so a one-sided seller photo can look like a different design.
- The back face has a teacup with a tea bag, a saxophone, a guitar and a columned building under palm trees, so check the listing shows that side if you want to confirm the design.
Before you buy
Charleston appears only in the Discovery Series in our records. The pineapple, tea and music drawings are on other faces of the mug, and most of the dolphin is too, so check that a listing shows all sides. The inside is light teal in our front photo.
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Historic Preservation (South Carolina Encyclopedia)
- Preservation Society of Charleston (South Carolina Encyclopedia)
- Rainbow Row (South Carolina Encyclopedia), on the neglected East Bay buildings
- Battery, The (South Carolina Encyclopedia)
- Charleston Tea Plantation (South Carolina Encyclopedia)
- Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition (South Carolina State Library)
- The story behind South Carolina sweetgrass baskets (AFAR)
- Livability & Tourism (City of Charleston)
